Comedy Club 4 Kids

Heckle-happy crowd nearly stump the pros

It’s perceived wisdom that kids are a tough crowd. No matter how naturally witty you are, getting a child to laugh is often a triumph of hard-nosed perseverance. But who knew that nippers could deliver the most savage of heckles, here displaying the kind of withering backchat that would have Brendon Burns running to his mammy. ‘DIE!!’ was a frequently-yelped demand from a boisterous 11-year-old towards compere Tiernan Douieb (pictured) and closing act Tim FitzHigham. By the show’s finale, the lad’s younger sister had joined in with the brutal refrain and, for all FitzHigham’s unhinged jollity, he was the seasoned comic who came most perilously close to fulfilling the pair’s wishes by losing his crowd on several occasions.

Douieb is an amiable host who clearly knows his crowd, while still chipping in the odd reference for the adults, and the gangly Eric Lampaert made hay with some surrealist banter while. This show’s kid comic, Preston, has already got an impressive grasp on technique. There is already a child-like quality to the adult stand-up of Douieb, FitzHigham and Lampaert but what I’d love to see here is Jim Jefferies headlining, Jerry Sadowitz doing some magic and Doug Stanhope checking the tickets at the door. Is there a bairn alive brave enough to heckle that lot?